Daytona testing underway, Danica begins prep for 500

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01/12/2012 - Daytona Beach, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Thirty-one Sprint Cup Series teams checked in at Daytona International Speedway on Thursday to begin a three-day test session in preparation for the February 26 season-opening Daytona 500.

During the morning single-car session, Hendrick Motorsports driver and three- time Daytona 500 winner Jeff Gordon topped the speed charts with a lap at 192.773 mph. Paul Menard was second fastest at 192.369 mph, followed by Kurt Busch, who is making his debut with Phoenix Racing after being released from Penske Racing at the end of the 2011 season.

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was fourth and Juan Pablo Montoya fifth. Stenhouse Jr., the reigning Nationwide Series champion, has landed a ride for the Daytona 500 in Roush Fenway Racing's No.6 Ford.

Teams are mainly familiarizing themselves with NASCAR's new rules package for next month's race at Daytona. A number of revisions have been made to the Sprint Cup cars for restrictor-plate racing at Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway this year, including a smaller capacity in both the radiators and overflow tank.

In addition, the radiator inlet will be moved up closer into the front center bumper area. The springs on the cars will be softer and the rear spoiler smaller. The restrictor plate has been modified to 1/64 inch larger than the plate size used for last year's Daytona 500.

"I'm glad they [NASCAR] opened up the cars a little bit and gave us a bigger plate," said 2004 Daytona 500 winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. "I think the changes they made are really good, and I can feel that I'm going around the corners faster than I have been in the last couple of years, which is good."

Earnhardt Jr. was 11th quickest (191.388 mph) in the opening session. He won the pole for last year's Daytona 500 with a lap at 186.089 mph.

NASCAR is hoping to minimize and perhaps eliminate two-car drafts, which has become an unpopular style of racing at restrictor-plate tracks. The sanctioning body is also considering banning communications between drivers on their car radios during the race in effort to break up the two-car tandems.

Earnhardt Jr. doesn't think NASCAR's rule of ceasing communication between drivers while on the racetrack will make that much of a difference.

"I don't think it will be a big deal," he said. "Pretty much everybody is working with teammates anyway. I don't think their going to limit that, so I don't think it will be any big deal. When we first started tandem drafting, you might ended up working with somebody outside of your company. But then everybody sort of got a little strict on who they're going to work with and how they're going to do it, and they stuck with that plan for the entire race."

Some two-car drafting took place during the afternoon hours on day one at Daytona.

The test session will also allow teams with new drivers this year to get familiar with each other. Running a limited Sprint Cup schedule this season, beginning with the Daytona 500, Danica Patrick is getting more acquainted with her crew chief, Greg Zipadelli, and the crew members of her No.10 Stewart-Haas Racing team.

"Today it's just run on our own and seeing how fast we can get the car to go," Patrick said. "I think [Friday] we'll work on bump drafting. I heard Tony [Stewart] say he's going to let someone else do it first with the new rear spoiler and springs, so that's fine with me. I said that I think I want to be the one getting pushed, so I don't be the one who takes out my boss [Stewart]. That would be bad."

Last month, Zipadelli was named as the new competition director for Tony Stewart's multi-car organization. Zipadelli had served as crew chief for Stewart (1999-2008) and Joey Logano (2009-2011) at Joe Gibbs Racing.

As of now, Patrick is not guaranteed a starting position in the Daytona 500, but Stewart, the 2011 Sprint Cup driver/owner champion, could give his owner points to Patrick to ensure her a spot in the race.

"I think we're still trying to figure that equation out," Stewart said. "The good thing is looking on the sheet today the car seems to have good speed right off the bat. I've got the utmost confidence that even in the worst-case scenario that we've got the right driver that can get this car in the race with no problem.

"We're working through that and trying to get it finalized and figuring out what are options are to make sure that we give her the best opportunity to get into the Daytona 500 and get her all the experience that we can get her."

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NCAA Football Betting : USC's reward: Top spot in Top 25

NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.

No. 1 always seems to fit USC.

Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.

Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.

Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.

"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."

Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.

"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."

The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.

"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."

Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.

"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"

USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.

"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."

While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.

As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.

But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.

Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.

The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.

The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.

The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.

No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.

Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.

Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.

Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.

The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.

South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.

The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.

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American Idol Betting Odds: Season 6  

The online gambling websites are in the process of deciphering each American Idol contestant and his or her chances of winning Season 6 to come up with the early American Idol betting lines.

Tim Dalton of MySportsbook.com has been locked away in a soundproof room coming up with all the latest tallies, we are told. "American Idol has become one of the most significant betting events of the year," claims Jack Black of MySportsbook.com.  "Last year, millions were bet during the season across the globe, not just in America.

It's tough early on since we really do not have a glimpse as to how well each of these individuals will perform solo on a week-to-week basis.  It's like Week 1 of the NFL.  Pre-season means nada!

We do know the 24 finalists however.

Sanjaya Malakar is the young man whose sister failed to make it into the Top 24.  He's very low key but - unless he totally flubs - will probably win over the young girlie vote for a few weeks anyway.  He's too young to go all the way, according to Payton O'Brien. 

Brandon Rogers - Who?

Phil Stacy is the military guy who missed his daughter's birth because of the Memphis audition.  He should go a good distance.

Chris Sligh - He's got the humor and in many ways he's the Anti-American Idol much like last year's winner Taylor Hicks was.  And this is why he'll probably get pretty far in this competition.  He's chubby, white with a big curly afro....but more importantly, a great voice!  People love "real", not "real cute" to go all the way. 

"Blake Lewis should go far because of his uniqueness and looks.  He's the boy next store with a twist - he beat boxes.  But on top of this, he's a great singer, and I adore him," Payton O'Brien relayed.

A talented beat-boxer Blake Lewis was a hit during the group sing in Hollywood but Simon explained that this is a singing contest just before he told him he was “in.”

Paul Kim has caught our own roving reporter, Jenny Woo's eyes. 

"I love the fact that there is a Korean American on the show and he is bound to get more Asians tuning into the show," Woo said from her Miami Beach estate.  "There has never been a major presence of Asian-Americans on American Idol in the past.  He's a hottie with a nice voice so that should help to take him far.  Expect heavy betting action from the Asian community."

Sundance Head - He's not perfect, but he's got the personality that will take him through a few weeks, plus he's got the lineage (son of Roy Head - whose 1965 single, "Treat Her Right," hit No. 5 in the charts) 

And the others:

Rudy Cardinas
AJ Tabaldo - the 5th time is the charm
Nicolas Pedro
Chris Richardson
Jared Cotter

The girls

"Melinda Doolittle has one of the best voices," says MySportsbook.com Reporter and an acclaimed dancer in her own right, Destiney Lewis.  "It is great to see a back up singer step out like she has.  The girl needs to gain more confidence but that can also be a positive.  I think she will go far."

Alena Alexander - Those tears (she never seems to stop bawling) should get her far.

"Single mom Lakisha Jones I suspect will be a pretty big favorite entering Week 1 of the competition," says Destiny Williams.  Jones is an excellent singer and down to earth.  "She'll have a wide appeal," echoed O'Brien.

Nicole Trellis - Seems to exert confidence.

Amy Krebs - a powerful singer.

Antonella Barba
Gina Glocksen
Hailey Scanardo
Jordan Sparks
Stephanie Edwards
Leslie Hunt
Sabrina Sloan

MySportsbook.com is offering a 20% signup bonus with an initial deposit (i.e. open your American Idol betting account with $300, receive another $60 in which to bet with). 

Last two contestants will be?

1 Male/1 Female +100 (a $10 bet pays $10 plus your initial $10)

2 Males +170 (a $10 bet pays $17 plus your initial $17)

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